FOCUS 2017: What are your expectations?

This article will talk about what BI360 customers and partners can expect for BI360 Focus this late August.

Solver Global, along with its customers and partners, will come together in just a few weeks on Monday August 21, at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines in San Diego, CA. The fifth annual BI360 customer and partner conference will be a space where we can share best practices, networking and hands-on learning opportunities to take your BI360 experience to the next level. This article will focus on the activities and experiences BI360 Focus attendees can expect this year.

I first attended Focus in 2016 as the sales lead and social media coordinator. I was pretty new to the Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) world, and I was just starting to truly understand all things related to budgeting, forecasting, data warehouse, and dashboards as tools to help organizations achieve better decision making. Attending Focus was an immense eye-opener for me as a Solver employee who helped the Focus team plan the event. It was definitely an unforgettable experience to see all the planning involved prior to the conference come into fruition at the panels, training, welcome reception, and awards dinner, to name a few. It was also really nice to get to know the Solver family better, as well as meet Solverites from international offices. As a second year attendee and a digital marketing associate, I’m looking forward to assisting and executing the interviews and video production, while sharing memorable moments and content by connecting and increasing brand awareness and driving traffic, so we can continue to grow our Solver follower base and host conferences like BI360 Focus.
I am most excited to attend the session by our guest keynote speaker, Linda Cliatt-Wayman, who will speak on the topic of bold leadership. I am not sure if you have heard of her, but she is best known for her feature on Ted Talk in which she tells the audience about her fierce leadership and loving story of the children in her life. She has also been featured on ABC World News Tonight and Nightline. Linda Cliatt-Wayman has been receiving more and more recognition from her powerful leadership and the success of her students.
It will be interesting to observe the audience’s reaction from day 1 to day 4 of the conference. I am also excited about shining light on the new BI360 Cloud. The Development, Sales, and Marketing teams have worked extremely hard for the BI360 Cloud launch, so it will be rewarding and eye-opening to see how customers and partners will receive the information as well as learn how to set up new integrations to populate the BI360 data warehouse (DW) with custom and pre-built connectors. This event program will also offer users more depth to cover all iterations of BI360 and how users can make the most out of it for their organization. You can find details on the agenda, session, CPE credits on our Focus website.
Training: There will also be three levels of training: introductory, intermediate, and advanced training. Introductory training gives the beginner user opportunities to learn the skills needed to create his/her own custom reports and dashboards. Intermediate training is available for users with prior BI360 experience who have already taken the introductory class. Users will build on their prior knowledge while training on design techniques and various types of report. Advanced training is for the experienced BI360 user who has already taken the introductory and intermediate training classes and wants to become a BI360 expert. The BI360 user will work on advanced budgeting concepts for the general ledger and multiple sub-ledgers.

Unfortunately, the training programs are full, but Solver is excited to offer other trainings throughout the rest of the year. Solver does offer a BI360 Training Tour each year as well as remote training, onsite classroom training, and online training. You can find more information here or email us at [email protected].
Social Media Sweepstakes: Do you remember the Twitter sweepstakes that Solver hosted last year? Well, we’re hosting it again and contestants will be able to win a $75 gift card each day up until the last day of the conference. The Sweepstakes must be entered by posting a tweet including the hashtag, “#BI360Con”. The entry must fulfill all sweepstakes requirements, as specified, to be eligible to win a prize. Tweets are accepted only starting on 08/22/17 and ending 08/24/17. All tweets must be received by 08/24/17, 03:00 PM PST. A total of six winners will receive $75.00 gift cards, two gift cards per day of the Focus 2017 conference.
Sponsors: We are fortunate to have Acumatica, Altec and DXC Concerto as sponsors at our BI360 Focus conference this year.
I cannot wait to meet you all at Focus this year. Feel free to introduce yourself, and I hope to see new and familiar faces this year. Focus 2017 is going to be a similar experience as last year’s, but there will be minor enhancements from exciting visuals to fun activities planned that will take your BI360 experience to the next level. We have passed our Super Early Bird discount price as well as the Early Bird price, but Solver is offering a multiple person discount. Teams of 2 attendees will be able to receive a 10 percent discount, and 3 or more attendees will receive a 15% off discount. Be our guest – and bring your team of BI360 users.  Our product experts are looking forward to sharing their extensive knowledge and experiences with you to help you become your company’s own BI360 guru. Register now!
Solver enables world-class decisions with BI360, a leading web-based CPM suite made up of budgeting, reporting, dashboards, and data warehousing, delivered through a web portal. Solver is reinventing CPM with its next generation solution. BI360 empowers business users with modern features including innovative use of Excel in the model design process. If you’re interested in learning more, our team is excited to hear about your organizational needs and goals.